Jailed for cheating 4 investors

[Tadakatsu Honda]

Singapore
Feb 18, 2010

Jailed for cheating 4 investors

<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
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<!-- end left side bar --> <!-- story content : start --> HE POSED as a big-time caterer with lucrative contracts with the Singapore Armed Forces and firms in Batam, Indonesia. Mohd Farid Aliman, 41, also promised that for every $4,000 investment in his company, Raffleasia Food Chain Services, it would yield a profit of $1,200 every fortnight. But the four people who poured in more than half a million dollars between 2001 and 2005 lost nearly all of it and on Thursday, Farid was jailed for 5 1/2 years by a district court.

He had cheated on 126 occasions and forged cheques and the social visit extension on his wife's passport on six instances. Farid asked the district court to impose a lenient sentence as he had resorted to cheating to pay debts from operating two canteen businesses. But District Judge Jasvender Kaur, noting that Farid's 'thoroughly dishonest endeavour spanned over five years and involved a staggering sum of money,' said a lengthy jail term was called for.

 

[Tadakatsu Honda]

Man who duped 4 jailed

Singapore
Feb 19, 2010

Man who duped 4 jailed

<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar -->

Mohd Farid Aliman sweet-talked his victims into 'investing' in his food catering business - promising 50 per cent returns every month.

<!-- story content : start --> A CANTEEN operator sweet-talked his victims into 'investing' in his food catering business - with promises of 50 per cent returns every month on sums of at least $4,000. Four people who fell for his spiel poured in more than $500,000 between 2001 and 2005. The returns never came. Mohd Farid Aliman, 41, was jailed for 5-1/2 years on Thursday. Besides 126 cheating offences, he also forged four cheques and twice extended the validity of his Indonesian wife's social visit pass with a forged stamp.

A district court heard that Farid first preyed on his neighbour, Mr Ismail Sheik Omar, 56, in mid-2001, when they were living in Bukit Batok. Farid, who claimed to be running Raffleasia Food Chain Services and providing catering to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Logistics Unit, said he needed fresh funds to be more profitable.Mr Ismail invested $4,000 on the assurance that a profit of $1,000 would be made every fortnight; he was told the earnings would be rolled over to make still more money. By Nov 1 that year, Farid had convinced the older man to sink another $27,500 into the business.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.